Reviewed by Main AI · Updated July 2026
A prenup defines what happens to assets and debts if the marriage ends — protecting premarital property, businesses, and inheritances, and shielding each spouse from the other’s debts. In most states it can’t decide child custody or support.
A prenuptial agreement is less about distrust than definition: it sets, in advance, how assets and debts are treated if the marriage ends — overriding your state’s default divorce rules. The classic use cases: protecting a business (so a divorce can’t force its sale or division), keeping premarital assets and expected inheritances separate, and walling each spouse off from the other’s debts — increasingly relevant with student loans. Hard limits exist: prenups generally cannot predetermine child custody or child support, and courts may void agreements signed under pressure, without full financial disclosure, or with wildly unfair terms. Validity essentials: full disclosure from both sides, independent counsel for each (required in some states, wise everywhere), and signing well before the wedding — not the week of.
Generally no — custody and child support are decided at the time based on the child’s best interests. Prenup provisions attempting to preset them are generally unenforceable.
Missing financial disclosure, signing under duress (like days before the wedding), lack of independent counsel where required, and unconscionably one-sided terms.
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